There have been many movies made about the Civil War, but very few, if any, have been told from a female’s perspective. Now, however, we have The Keeping Room, which attempts to look at history from that point of view and shatter any preconceptions anyone has about gender.
Directed by Daniel Barber, who got Michael Caine to turn vigilante in Harry Brown, and based on the 2012 Black List screenplay by Julia Hart, The Keeping Room stars Brit Marling and Hailee Steinfeld as sisters who are forced to protect the family farmhouse and fend for themselves when their dad and brothers go off to fight in the war.
When two renegade soldiers arrive in their small town, it doesn’t take long to see that they have no real interests other than destroying everything and everyone around them. When the soldiers find out where the sisters live, it’s up to them and their female slave Mad (Muna Otaru) to defend themselves and their homestead from the vicious attacks.
At the recent LA press day for the film, we sat down with both Marling and Steinfeld for an exclusive interview. They discussed how the screenplay’s unique perspective drew them to this project, the challenge of acting without words and what surprised them most during their research of the Civil War. T
Check out what they had to say above and be sure to catch The Keeping Room when it arrives in theaters on September 25th.